Home | Writings | Resume | Links | RSS Feed
A Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community
About Me :
I'm a grownup nerd living in the Boston burbs. I write computer programs for a living and plays for fun.
I'm married to a wonderful woman, and we share a nice little house with our daughter and our cats.
I'm a humanist, a technologist, an artist, and an idealist. I believe in reason, freedom, love, equality,
and democracy. (Did I mention that I'm
an idealist? I did, OK.)
I'm also a pragmatist and an empiricist. I reject ideology and dogma, especially when they conflict with
practical facts (i.e., pretty much always). I particularly hate willful ignorance, which tends to go hand-in-hand
with ideology and dogma.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Thursday, July 22, 2004
I Don't Think That's Such A Good Idea, Davey...
I was in a novelty shop in New York when I noticed bendable Davey and Goliath toys; and I thought, "Wow! I remember Davey and Goliath!" This show was a staple of kid TV when I was little. Created by the great Art Clokey, the creator of the immortal Gumby, in the same slightly-creepy-but-nevertheless-compelling style of stop-motion claymation, Davey was explicitly commissioned by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as a way to promote Christian values to children. The show was absolutely harmless and wholesome, and when I was a kid, I watched it even though I didn't much like it (Mom and Dad had something to do with that). However, even then I was a little weirded out by the fact that Davey was getting moral advice from a dog. Finding this toy reminded me that I'm still weirded out by that.
According to the box copy on the bendable toy, "Goliath [is] Davey's dog. ... When Goliath talks, only Davey can hear him. Goliath sometimes acts as Davey's conscience."
Actually, I'm pretty sure that Protestant theology rejects the idea that animals have souls or are capable of moral choice. Goliath, as an animal, does not have a soul, and is incapable of attaining heaven and eternal life. Goliath lives solely according to his instincts.
If Goliath doesn't have a soul, then how can he dispense moral advice to Davey? And why did the Lutheran Church create a promotional TV series so clearly opposed to their theology?
Ah, but Goliath isn't really talking, you say. Davey just hears Goliath's imaginary voice in his head.
OK, let's say that's true. Davey is just hearing imaginary voices. And those imaginary voices are coming from ... where?
(A) God?
(B) The Devil?
(C) Davey's deep inner psychosis?
Either Goliath stands in contradiction to the church's theology, or Davey is a psychotic. Neither alternative really speaks well about the program's relationship with its sponsor, the ELCA. However, after letting the program lapse for a few years, the ELCA has decided to bring it back and promote it heavily. Hence the new toys, and new commercial partnerships, including a Mountain Dew commercial, because Jesus wants you to drink more caffeine-laced sugar water. Or Davey wants to, and rationalizes it by saying the dog (Which, Dude, is like, GOD spelled backwards!) told him to.
And, of course, the toys are made in China. That's because, as you know, Christ taught us that sweatshop labor at starvation wages under an oppressive, dictatorial regime is Good.
0 comments
I was in a novelty shop in New York when I noticed bendable Davey and Goliath toys; and I thought, "Wow! I remember Davey and Goliath!" This show was a staple of kid TV when I was little. Created by the great Art Clokey, the creator of the immortal Gumby, in the same slightly-creepy-but-nevertheless-compelling style of stop-motion claymation, Davey was explicitly commissioned by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as a way to promote Christian values to children. The show was absolutely harmless and wholesome, and when I was a kid, I watched it even though I didn't much like it (Mom and Dad had something to do with that). However, even then I was a little weirded out by the fact that Davey was getting moral advice from a dog. Finding this toy reminded me that I'm still weirded out by that.
According to the box copy on the bendable toy, "Goliath [is] Davey's dog. ... When Goliath talks, only Davey can hear him. Goliath sometimes acts as Davey's conscience."
Actually, I'm pretty sure that Protestant theology rejects the idea that animals have souls or are capable of moral choice. Goliath, as an animal, does not have a soul, and is incapable of attaining heaven and eternal life. Goliath lives solely according to his instincts.
If Goliath doesn't have a soul, then how can he dispense moral advice to Davey? And why did the Lutheran Church create a promotional TV series so clearly opposed to their theology?
Ah, but Goliath isn't really talking, you say. Davey just hears Goliath's imaginary voice in his head.
OK, let's say that's true. Davey is just hearing imaginary voices. And those imaginary voices are coming from ... where?
(A) God?
(B) The Devil?
(C) Davey's deep inner psychosis?
Either Goliath stands in contradiction to the church's theology, or Davey is a psychotic. Neither alternative really speaks well about the program's relationship with its sponsor, the ELCA. However, after letting the program lapse for a few years, the ELCA has decided to bring it back and promote it heavily. Hence the new toys, and new commercial partnerships, including a Mountain Dew commercial, because Jesus wants you to drink more caffeine-laced sugar water. Or Davey wants to, and rationalizes it by saying the dog (Which, Dude, is like, GOD spelled backwards!) told him to.
And, of course, the toys are made in China. That's because, as you know, Christ taught us that sweatshop labor at starvation wages under an oppressive, dictatorial regime is Good.